Misleading headline

Earlier this week while I was getting things ready for all my posts this week I found THIS article on People.com.  I remember seeing this cover at the grocery store and feeling sad...my initial thought was that a complex emotional situation was being splashed accross the headlines.  A couple days later someone I work with brought the magazine in and I was relieved to read the article...but still enraged to find out that the headline "We Miss Our Baby" was TOTALLY misleading.  If someone hadn't picked up the magazine and read the article they would have a completely different opinion of the situation. 

As I searched for more, I found THIS article on Psychology Today's website.  It found the same thing...let me quote a bit from that article.  (Let me just say that I find it SO ironic that this journalist is criticizing another news outlet for making a mistake when they make the mistake of saying "gave up their baby"...I mean, seriously...)

This week's PEOPLE Magazine features the only teenage couple from the TV show Sixteen and Pregnant who gave up their baby for adoption. Yet the unfortunate cover makes it seem as though the teen couple now regrets their decision. Readers would have to wade deep into the magazine to see how much at odds this is with the couple's actual statements.

Other information buried deep in the article that's particularly relevant is how Catelynn and Tyler are the lone couple from Sixteen and Pregnant who are still together. Instead of the inaccurate message the PEOPLE cover presents, Catelynn and Tyler say they have only grown closer since the adoption. Had they decided to raise their baby, Catelynn says, "I think we would have struggled a lot. I didn't want to struggle and I didn't want Carly to be around all of that."

Instead of lauding adoption, the take home message teens will get when they see the cover of PEOPLE is that they will seriously regret it if they place their baby for adoption.

It just goes to prove something that Jill said in her Cold Rissotto story.  Sensational stories sell.  If the headline had read Couple Happy With Their Adoption Plan the copies wouldn't have flown off the shelf.   But what's especially sad about this story is that it ISN'T sensational (other than the fact it was on TV).  A couple placed their baby against massive opposition, is sad (which is TOTALLY normal) but wouldn't change their minds.  People Magazine went out of their way to make the story seem more "sensaitonal" than it actually was.  It makes me disappointed and you can bet I won't be picking up a People Magazine anytime soon.